Poker News Roundup: Mario Prats Garcia, Shaun Deeb, Pantera Capital

The 2018 World Series of Poker is dominating the poker circuit as well as this week’s headlines. Here’s a recap of what’s happening at the biggest event of the year:

Prats Garcia Conquers Event No. 45 At 2018 WSOP

After coming so close to a win at the 2017 World Series of Poker, Mario Prats Garcia took it a step further in 2018. The Spaniard claimed the bracelet for the No. 45 event, which was the Big Blind Antes $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em. After last year’s event, Prats Garcia figured that he’d hit his high-water mark but just one year later, he succeeded where he had previously fallen short.

The entire event took just two days as Prats Garcia survived a field of 1,712 other players. As a result, he’ll take home $258,255 for his efforts. Matthew Hunt finished in second place and won $159,532. Rounding out the top five were Sebastian Dornbracht, who finished in third and won $114,909, Michael Wang, who placed fourth and won $83,663, and Mark Schluter, who ended up in fifth and took home $61,580.

This isn’t the last we’ll see of Prats Garcia at the 2018 WSOP as he plans to play the No-Limit Hold’em Monster Stack event, which takes place this week.

Deeb Wins Pot-Limit Omaha 8-Handed High Roller

Shaun Deeb had to navigate his way through a field of 230 entries but he has survived and claimed the No. 42 event, the $25,000 Pot-Limit Omaha 8-Handed High Roller tournament, at the 2018 WSOP. As a result, he’ll take home a hefty prize of $1,402,683.

The story of this event was both the final table and the final two players. The final table was star-studded with players like defending champion James Calderaro, Hall of Famer Scotty Nguyen and Jason Koon, who is one of the hottest players on the poker circuit right now. However, it was Deeb and Ben Yu – the player who beat Deeb in the No. 34 event at the 2017 WSOP – who were the final two players. Both were aiming to become three-time bracelet winners but in the end it was Deeb who exacted some revenge and got the win.

Yu still won $866,924 for his second-place finish while Nguyen earned $592,875 for his third-place result.

Pantera Capital Pays Investors’ WSOP Entry Fees

Pantera Capital, a new-wave crypto hedge fund, has decided to reward seven of its existing investors with free entry to the 2018 WSOP. The lucky winners will have their $10,000 buy-in covered as well as $3,000 for traveling and lodging, the firm announced.

The company received the invites from Virtue Poker, a decentralized poker platform on the blockchain. The invites are a return thank you to Pantera Capital, who invested during Virtue Poker’s initial coin offering.

As of now, Pantera Capital has simply made the announcement and is waiting to see if more than seven people are interested in the offer. If so, then they’ll do a random draw for three players and reward the four biggest investors with the remaining packages.